NOMAD On the Way!!!

We'll I changed my mind from the BLT and got Brian at The Bike Boutique to send me a Nomad.

Large Anno. Slate with X-9 kit.

I'd like to know the good and bad what to expect and/or to look out for.

Is the DHX Air and the TALAS RC2 a nightmare to set up?

I'm a 230lbs. 42 year old trail rider. I'll use the bike primarily as a trail bike that can take abuse. I had a Heckler a few years back and loved how solid & fun it was on the trails and downhills. I'm hoping this will give the same solid feeling with better pedaling.

I too have a large ano slate Nomad...nice color. I don't think you'll have much issue with the fork when you get it dialed in, but I'm really not a fan of the DHXA on the Nomad. In reality I think you'll find that the Nomad works so well that you probably won't have much of an issue with the shock initially. However, as you get used to the bike and start pushing yourself, and the bike a little more, the shortcomings in that shock may become more apparent. Oh...don't ride anyone else's Nomad with a better aftermarket rear shock for awhile or you may get disappointed early on...LOL!

It's a great bike, and you'll enjoy it immensely...if you're like 90% of the people who buy them. And please...apply antiseize to those two lower pivot axles at the lower main pivot, and you'll go a long way to reduce creaking and probably increase bearing life. Mine were still good after 14 months.

We'll I changed my mind from the BLT and got Brian at The Bike Boutique to send me a Nomad.

Large Anno. Slate with X-9 kit.

I'd like to know the good and bad what to expect and/or to look out for.

Is the DHX Air and the TALAS RC2 a nightmare to set up?

I'm a 230lbs. 42 year old trail rider. I'll use the bike primarily as a trail bike that can take abuse. I had a Heckler a few years back and loved how solid & fun it was on the trails and downhills. I'm hoping this will give the same solid feeling with better pedaling.

Anyway, let me have it. I can't wait to ride this thing!!!!

Dude I have the exact same setup its sweet. What year is the talas rc2.

Its a great setup. All the problems with the 36 talas were fixed in 07 so you have nothing to worry about. As far as the dhx its touch and go. I have one on mine and its okay but you might want to think about something different maybe float revox evolver double barrel roco . etc Depends on what you want. If I were you I would get the I-9s 5.1d if I had an unlimited budget but if you want to save cash get Easton Havocs. I just bought a pair. They are sweet light bombproof can't do better for the price.

I have a Van 36 that's currently on a Bullit but used to be on my Nomad...a 66SL is on the Nomad now. I like the Van 36 for my riding. On your Float 36, I think I'd rather have it over the Talas, as I don't give a hoot about travel reduction, and the Float should be relatively simple.

The Talas adjustments really helps me out on steep hills. If you're not a strong rider like me Talas is great pedaling up. Loving mine so far with my Nomad. Some people might not notice the difference but I certainly do specially those technical steep climbs without lifting my front end. I tought it really did well at the bike park as well. Doing 6ft-8ft with ease I think you'll be happy with it. Enjoy your new ride!!

i had my first Nomad set up with air front and back, the Talas 06 ( bad fork ) went first, got a Vanilla, sweet fork, then on with the coil. stuff the weight, it was so much smoother and responsive, it actually had small bump performance! I had one DHX air pack down too!
from my experience its coil for me everytime, and being just under 200lbs, i am told, and now believe a coil to be a much better option. the weight saving is a small benefit against the performance of a coil. also for me the more buttons to press and play with, the greater chance of leaving something open or closed when it whould be the other. i ran a real tech bit of trail at 130mm, realised why it felt so bad when i went to dial the bugger in and it was there aghhhh. The simplicity of the Van, get on and ride!

i had my first Nomad set up with air front and back, the Talas 06 ( bad fork ) went first, got a Vanilla, sweet fork, then on with the coil. stuff the weight, it was so much smoother and responsive, it actually had small bump performance! I had one DHX air pack down too!
from my experience its coil for me everytime, and being just under 200lbs, i am told, and now believe a coil to be a much better option. the weight saving is a small benefit against the performance of a coil. also for me the more buttons to press and play with, the greater chance of leaving something open or closed when it whould be the other. i ran a real tech bit of trail at 130mm, realised why it felt so bad when i went to dial the bugger in and it was there aghhhh. The simplicity of the Van, get on and ride!

We'll I changed my mind from the BLT and got Brian at The Bike Boutique to send me a Nomad.

Large Anno. Slate with X-9 kit.

I'd like to know the good and bad what to expect and/or to look out for.

Is the DHX Air and the TALAS RC2 a nightmare to set up?

I'm a 230lbs. 42 year old trail rider. I'll use the bike primarily as a trail bike that can take abuse. I had a Heckler a few years back and loved how solid & fun it was on the trails and downhills. I'm hoping this will give the same solid feeling with better pedaling.

Anyway, let me have it. I can't wait to ride this thing!!!!

You're going to love that bike. I just got a Nomad about a month or so ago from Brian as well. Super easy to deal with, great guy.

I'm really more of an XC guy but I weigh enough that I'm hoping this will just be more solid and fun for general trail riding. Most XCish bike feel frail to me. I hope it's not overkill.

My Nomad I got from his is a large black ano with the x9 build kit, but I put a Lyrik U-turn on it, 07 Hope M4 discs, Cane Creek Solos headset, and a Thomson Stem. And I put Crank Bros Mallet M pedals. Comes in right at 33 lbs.

But beleive me, you wouldn't ever know it. This thing climbs better than my old superlight did, and it only weighed 23.75 lbs.

It can depend a great deal on the shock. The Evolver ISX-6 is a great match to the Nomad...while yes...the DHX Air kinda sucked.

Well, my local dealer Crazy Crank got DHX Air in his Nomad for over a year.. Santa Cruz also confirmed, that is impossible to set up that shock as good as a coil version. People who thinks Air works good, probably have never ridden the Coil version. After it - most of the Nomad owners changed it.

Well, my local dealer Crazy Crank got DHX Air in his Nomad for over a year.. Santa Cruz also confirmed, that is impossible to set up that shock as good as a coil version. People who thinks Air works good, probably have never ridden the Coil version. After it - most of the Nomad owners changed it.

Sorry for my English (:

Yeh! You are right! The Coil Shock for Nomad it's the better! I've run the DHX Air on my cousin Nomad and the DHX5 Coil on my Nomad fells so much much much better!

I only had a chance to take a spin around in the driveway but it seems like it will be a lot of fun!!

Feels Very choppered out compared to the Racer-X.

I can tell already I'll be able to get away with murder with it. Naturally, it feels heavy when picking it up compared to the Racer-X. Those two bikes are night and day. It really doesn't feel heavy riding it though. I'll have to hit the trails to get a real feel for it though.

I'll never be able to keep up with a 4" travel race bike on this but I don't really think that is the point of owning a bike like this in the first place. Anyway, at 230 lbs. I didn't have much of a chance of keeping up with the slick leg crowd anyway even on my own 4" travel rig.

Everything is a little bit nicer than I had expected. The stock 340/5.1 wheels, the anno. finish is top notch and all of the components and cockpit pieces are pretty damn good for a stock bike. I did upgrade my headset to a King. The X-9 looks like a previous year XO with a different finish. The only thing bad about it is the way FED EX handled it. It's a bit beat up.

The big tires are a definite change from my normal XC weenie tires but there again, I think they will help me get away with murder. I took about a year and a half off from biking to give motos a try: http://www.trialscentral.com/ . Oddly enough the head angle on this thing is about identical to my moto and the big tires, bike, etc. are not nearly as overwhelming after hoping off of a 150lb. motorcycle with 4" wide tires. The engine on this kinda sucks compared to the one on the moto though.

I realized I had no clue about how to set up the fork or shock when I put it together, luckily Brian must have gotten it in the ball park before sending it out. We weigh about the same.

Anyway, I think it will be a lot of fun. Time will tell. Either I will ride it for a month or two and realize it's just not for me or I'll have a whole new style of riding from here on out. One thing is for sure, I'm sure glad I have the chance to give it a try before I gave up on biking.

I'll snap a few shots tomorrow. It is basically a stock complete bike w/ X-9 kit and Float 32 RC2.

I did get a chance to take it out today. The first 30 minutes or so I was really starting to wonder if I had the right bike. The front end seemed really high and stiff and the rear end seemed really low and too soft. I pulled over and stiffened the rear and it helped. Soon thereafter I pulled over and let a little air out of the front. It rode a lot better this way and later I pulled over and let a tad more air out of the fork.

Once I got home I read up on the setup info. and went out to the garage to measure my sag. I already had about 20 psi less in the fork than Fox recommends and I was right at 20mm of sag, maybe less. I fiddled with it until I had almost 30 mm of sag and the pump reading was almost 30 psi less than recommended. Go figure.

The shock was already pumped up about 10 psi higher than the recommended but I still had way more sag than recommended. I finally got the sag right and the psi was about 20 higher than recommended. I will say though, my original setting for the rear shock didn't allow for any gear just a naked rider.

I noticed the seat post was really back there and as the ride went I scooted it a little bit further forward twice. I'm debating whether to try a shorter stem as well but I'll get the suspension set up right before I do that. The seat might make its way back forward a little as well. Half of the reason for moving it forward was because I felt like I was hanging off the back of an already droopy rear end.

One last note. I didn't have the sore neck or numb hand that I normally do after the ride today so something is agreeing with me. It will take a while to get used to this bike after riding pretty much XC bike for so long. It will also take a while to figure out how to ride it and where my limits are on it. I'm already hitting some pretty obnoxious trail debris with it and I'm not really used to it at all yet.